During the “Day without Latinxs & Immigrants,” thousands of workers struck and thousands of students were absent from school Over 100 businesses closed during the march (partial list here)  Photos here Video here Over ten thousand people marched in Waukesha today as part of a Day Without Latinxs & Immigrants statewide general strike. Marchers demanded... Continue »
In the interior of the United States, the federal responsibility of immigration enforcement is carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE sometimes gets help, however, from local police officers participating in a program known as 287(g). Through... Continue »
One vote was the deciding factor that put an end to the controversial 287g program in Los Angeles County, California. The program, which was adopted in 2005, allowed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to enter county jails in order to determine whether certain inmates could be transferred into... Continue »
More than 200 police jurisdictions nationwide have ended their cooperation with automatic ICE holds, and Long Island is now one of them. Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco this week ended his department’s cooperation with ICE holds, in which immigrants who are detained by police traffic or other minor violations are automatically... Continue »
After a sudden increase in the number of localities opting out of ICE holds, and an ongoing review of DHS enforcement practices, there is growing speculation that a “reboot” of Secure Communities is coming. The federal program has long been widely criticized for leading to unnecessary deportations, rather than focusing... Continue »
EDIT May 7, 2014: Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard has asked DHS for a new report on Secure Communities: http://roybal-allard.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=379194 According to the Washington Post today, a Senate oversight report has found that the top watchdog for DHS to have compromised his role as an independent inspector general, getting close with department leaders and altering... Continue »
Two of the most inaccurately named public policies have to be “Secure Communities” and the “SAFE Act.” Neither keeps communities secure or safe. Instead, they breed fear and profiling. And, some law enforcement officials are taking a stand against them, including one, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who used to be... Continue »
New Orleans–heretofore famous in the immigration reform world for the deportation proceedings of the Southern 32–this week is making immigration headlines in a much more positive way by announcing that it will effectively suspend Secure Communities. Among other things, Secure Communities requests that police send the fingerprints of those... Continue »
Federal legislation to improve the nation’s immigration system is taking a step forward this week, when the Senate Gang of 8 immigration bill goes into markup, but advocates today are reminding President Obama of the high cost of strict immigration enforcement and what he can do to alleviate the... Continue »
As part of their continuing series of “Bibles, Badges, and Business” events, the Forging a New Consensus project of the National Immigration Forum today held a press conference with Bill Bratton, the former Police Commissioner to both the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments.  In the midst of... Continue »